


Revenge Is The Best Kind Of Remedy

by SaraPhoenix14



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: AI!Jack, Angst, Jack is miserable, Jack makes fun of Rhys, Lots of Angst, M/M, Rhys as co-CEO, Rhys plans a revenge, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 23:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11519316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraPhoenix14/pseuds/SaraPhoenix14
Summary: "If there's nothing you want to say to me, then don't bother even talking." Rhys let the man know, his words making him feel like he was drowing in the ocean, and that ocean was Rhys. Those heterochromatic eyes looked at him expectantly, and the only thing he could remember was the laughter after Meg told him to apologise."Alright. I have to go, so... see you later, I guess." Rhys turned around, his broad back facing the frustrated expression on Jack's face. He rubbed at it for a second, before the words finally slipped from behind his hands: "I'm sorry.""What?"





	Revenge Is The Best Kind Of Remedy

"You should've seen the look on your face, kiddo." The loud obnoxoous laughter of a dead CEO's AI filled the oversized office, the younger man looking furiously outside the large window. His mind was filled with anger, he didn't even want to look at the stupid smug face on all of the monitors in the room. "Oh, of course Jack, I'll do anything for you, Jack," the AI mocked Rhys, adding an unnecessary high pitched tone to his not so accurate monologue, "please Jack, I'll beg on my knees. Just one, only one. I've been waiting for so long, please just do it."

That was the last straw, Rhys has had enough. With a short glare at one of the monitors, he walked out of the office, his arms crossed across his chest. He didn't bother looking back, not even half-curious to see if him storming out like that brought any reaction from the stupid, egoistic, excuse of a CEO. He heard the man call after him, his name just an echo in the long hallway that led towards the elevator. He passed by the images of the two of them hanging on the walls, past the diamond pony that stood proudly at the side, and past his personal assistant, who was drowning in paperwork. (Sometimes he wondered how she was able to withstand the annoyance of Handsome Jack, but she never told him her secret.)

When the doors finally closed, and the soft sound of the elevator moving was all Rhys could hear, he let out a long sigh. It's been like this for about a year, with them both bickering about things that don't matter, Jack letting Rhys humour him when he didn't have anything else to do. But Rhys felt pathetic for falling for the charade that he let Jack play on him. He was angry, mad, furious at Jack... but mostly himself. To think that something else might be between the two of them.

"Stupid... so stupid." Rhys said to himself, rubbing his face in frustration. He stepped out of the elevator into the Hub of Heroism, everyone around him going about their daily routines. What was the thing that he wanted to do? Oh yeah, distance himself from the disaster that was Handsome Jack as far away as possible.

"Hey Vaughn, up for a visit to our friends down on Pandora?" Rhys said, his robotic arm held in front of him, his friend's face showing above it. He seemed, distressed, almost like he didn't know if his head was still connected to his neck.

"Oh, hey Rhys. Uhh, I'm kind of busy right now. We've got a lot of new interns coming up today, and I kind of don't want to leave my "lackeys" all alone with the task of showing them around."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that one." Rhys said to his friend, awkwardly laughing outside but cursing himself for having the idea of the internship internally. Vaughn made an effort to cheer Rhys up, seeing right through his fake happiness but thankfully not questioning it: "Yeah, sorry about that. How about next week?"

"It's uh.. it's alright." Rhys said to him, already thinking of a back up plan.

"If you say so. Anyway, I gotta go. Call me if you need anything."

"I need you to erase my and also a certain AI's memory." was the thing Rhys would've said if the line didn't go dead right then. He thought about Yvette, they were on good terms now, but not on "Hey let's fly down to Pandora to visit my friends, you know, the ones that tried to help me while you sold me out to my most hated nemesis."

Yeah, that wasn't such a good idea. And going alone wasn't an option either, since Jack had access to all of Helios and he would know if the co-CEO wanted to escape the possible suffocation from embarrassment on his space station. After a moment of drowing in his self-pitying thoughts, Rhys heard the sound of a new message coming his way. He silently cursed when he saw that the message was indeed from who he think it was.

_Rhysie, I hope you're not thinking about leaving me here all alone with my worker bees. What would I do without you?_

Rhys fought the urge to roll his eyes at the stupid message. But Jack should know better than that. To give such a great idea to Rhys? He was bound to use it... and abuse it.

* * *

  
Jack waited for seconds, which turned into a minute, which turned into ten, and so on. He stared at the closed door, wondering why it took so long for Rhys to come back and realise that he was a fool for walking out like that. Of course he'd come back, he always came back. And Jack couldn't wait to greet him with that shit-eating grin.

But when the waiting turned into an hour, he couldn't help himself but look for the kid. He wasn't at the docks, neither in his apartment.

"Where are you, you little shit." Jack cursed, looking through all of Helios. He sent a message to Rhys earlier, but he hasn't gotten a response yet. Maybe he just didn't see it, but that was impossible. "He has a friggin ECHOeye in his head, that shit tells him even things he doesn't need to know."

He finally found the younger man in the R&D department, casually chatting with one of the workers there. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear what they were talking, with the labs having such tall ceilings and he really should have the cameras upgraded.

"And what the hell do you think you're doing, huh?"

* * *

  
"And you think that it'll work?"

"It's a simple task, sir. Sometimes I wish I had as much courage as you. But it should be ready by tomorrow." the man answered Rhys honestly, looking over the description Rhys gave him. "If all goes well, it'll run as smoothly as a pregnancy test on one of our test skags."

"Is it that smooth?"

"With the right equipment, yes."

* * *

  
_What do you think you're doing?_

He saw Rhys look at his message and smile. That damned smile, after all the time stuck in the kid's head, he knew exactly what it meant. And it didn't mean anything good.

Jack was frustrated, he didn't know why his partner was acting like a pissy teenager, he hasn't done anything to him. He didn't even try to strangle the boy in the past 7 months, so there was no reason behind his actions. And every time Jack sent him a message, or even talked to the kid face to face, he didn't even acknowledge it. He was just there, ignoring him just like that. Even when they attended meetings, Jack couldn't stop wondering why Rhys acted the way he did. It occurred to him that it was because of the innocent argument they had the day before, but he quickly dismissed it, thinking that there had to be a different, more important reason.

"Meg! Go fetch Rhys for me, I need to talk to him." Jack called out to the girl, who surprisingly didn't fall over her desk at the sudden order. She looked through her computer, looking over Rhys' schedule when she stopped at one particular problem.

"Sir, he's currently unavailable."

"What do you mean "unavailable"?!" Jack yelled at the assistant, who didn't even wince, "Everyone can reschedule their unnecessary appointments and make one with Handsome Jack."

"But sir, he's undergoing an ECHOeye upgrade."

"What?" He quickly looked through the database, trying to find anything about a scheduled ECHOeye uprgade. Through each information he got into one of the labs in the R&D department. Jack saw him there, sitting against the wall at one of the chairs, his eye completely detached out of his head, the temple of his head missing his port.

"He's..."

"I heard you the first time. Why the fuck is he having those dirty lab rats tinkering with his eye?"

"I don't know sir, he told me it's a surprise." Meg innocently smiled.

* * *

  
Jack watched all the way through. He had a suspision that maybe, Rhys decided to betray him, to sabotage everything they've done for the past year. That maybe getting that upgrade was a part of his menacing plan on destroying what they had. But a small part of Jack hoped that it meant nothing, that the next day Rhys would just stroll into the office like nothing happened, all smiley and eager to work on a new project.

And the next day came, and Rhys strolled into the office like nothing happened, whistling an unfamiliar tune, his smile outshining even Elpis's scar. Jack waited for the right moment, to ask, to demand to know if something was wrong and where he was and why he didn't answer his messages. But Rhys sat behind the desk, the computer already turned on for him, and he didn't even acknowledge him. It was like, for him, Jack wasn't even there.

"Playing hard to get, I see." Jack observed, looking down at the boy read paper after paper. "Why aren't you answering me, huh? Afraid to get even more embarrassed by your hero? Is that it?"

Jack watched the boy with disgust, how dare he ignore him like this. Ignore Handsome Jack? That meant you got insta-airlocked right out of your position. "You think you can just walk in here and ignore me all day? Princess, you won't last an hour." But he was wrong. So very wrong. All throughout the day, Jack watched the "stupid goddamned kid that doesn't appreciate the opportunities he's given, ungrateful little dipshit", used every insult that came to his mind, made funny jokes about the kid, even tried shoving one of the monitors into his face, but in the end, he failed.

"Hey, idiot, if you don't look at me in the next three seconds, I'm going to airlock you out of your own office." Jack threatened, already intoxicated by Rhys' behaviour. He tried everything except for that, maybe that would actually work.

"One.... two..." he counted down, staring aggressively at the man sitting behind the desk. Rhys rubbed his eyes tiredly, stretching his arms as a yawn escaped his mouth and oh my god, Jack was supposed to count down his incoming death, not watch as the rubbed at his exposed neck. With a few clicks, Rhys closed all of the windows on the computer and completely turned it off. "Huuuh... well, this has been a very long and exhausting day."

"Finally!" Jack called out, unable to even think straight in his excitement of showering the kid in insults he's managed to come up with already.

"Meg, you can head home early. I still have some things to arrange." said Rhys to the young assistant sitting loyaly at her desk. She smiled warmly at Rhys, who returned the gesture as she replied: "Of course, sir. If you don't mind, may I ask what the upgrade of your ECHOeye was for?"

"Oh yeah, that. Let's just say it's improved my mood lately."

"Is that so? Well, that's good. Also, I've heard that Handsome Jack has been trying to speak with you all day, but he couldn't quite do so. Is there something I should be concerned about?" Rhys laughed at the question, taking his precious time to answer it. "Handsome Jack? Sorry, but he's completely out of my system. Part of why my mood's gone from 0 to 100."

"What?" Jack let out in disbelief. "What the fuck does he mean I'm out of his system. He can't see me? What the fuck is wrong with this kid?!"

"He doesn't seem too happy about your decision, sir." Meg looked sadly over to the monitor sticking out behind Rhys.

"What does it matter? He can't do anything about what I do to the cybernetic part of my body. I call it the JackBlock. He was actually the one to bring me the idea. Not voluntarily, but he did. And I'm very thankful for that." Rhys smiled at Meg before deciding to leave, "See you next week."

"Unbelievable. A disgrace to this company. To have me blocked in his system, that's rich. JackBlock? Really? Couldn't he have at least come up with a better name?" Jack's monologue continued on until he heard the assistant clear her throat, "Sir, I don't want to interrupt you, but I have my suspisions that Rhys may have done this because of you."

"No shit, Meg."

"No, what I mean is he looked very hurt when he left the office earlier this week. I haven't asked him about it, but I'm concerned that he's not doing so well after your argument." said Meg, already walking towards the elevator. Jack appreciated the assistant trying to help him. After all, that's what she was here for.

"And what do you suggest I do, Sherlock?"

"Apologize." She said when the elevator doors opened for her. Jack's laughter echoed throughout the hallway and was followed with his denial: "Apologize? No, no, no. Not happening. Handsome Jack doesn't do apologies."

"It might be the only option left, sir."

* * *

  
It bothered Jack, why Rhys decided to do what he did. He felt miserable now that he had no one to make fun of, no one to have silly arguments with, no one to talk to. Yeah, he could've found someone else to bother like that, but Jack knew well it wouldn't be the same. He hated to admit it, but he missed Rhys. He missed how he'd feel proud of the kid when they'd manage to close a deal in a meeting without anyone being shot in the head, or when he'd just watch the kid tinker with his robotic arm in his free time, always hearing about how it gets dusty after a while. He missed having a laugh with him when they watched the worker bees hurriedly crash into each other during the lunch break in the cafeteria, or telling him tales about his time down on Pandora, which Rhys loved hearing whenever he needed a bedtime story in his office after a long night of signing papers.

Most of all, he missed how every morning Rhys would walk into his office, and greet Jack with that damned smile. That smile that would make Jack look through his coding, thinking there was a glitch somewhere hidden deep within that made him excited for the next day to see it again.

Of course, he would never admit any of this. Not to Rhys, not to anyone. Why? Because he wasn't supposed to be like this. Because he was an AI, he was lines of zeroes and ones delicately organised, he was a copy of someone who's been, existed. He was a nobody. No body, just a program.

Days passed, even weeks, with Jack desperately trying to reach out to Rhys, to have him acknowledge his presence, his well-being. Sometimes, he even felt like he didn't exist, and he watched the kid in silence, observing, thinking. Has he really done something to the boy to deserve this treatment? He even wondered why he tolerated, why he even let Rhys do this to him.

But in the end he just knew that he'd feel as lonely as right then.

* * *

  
It was one of the quiet days, when Rhys wasn't in the office but down on Pandora for a few days, dealing with something in their upcoming projects. The station felt odly quiet without Rhys' presence, and Jack hated it. He swam through the thousands of cameras in the station, trying to find anything thst would entertain him now that the center of his attention was away. He managed to find the one from R&D, the same one where he saw Rhys undergo the upgrade, and let himself project into one of the monitors.

One of the men shrieked in horror before passing out, the other ones looking at him like he was crazy.

"Must be a newbie." Jack said, looking at the man now lying on the floor.

"Sir, what can we do for you?" Adam, Jack read by the name tag, dared to ask him. Jack scoffed at the man, "What can you do for me? What's the hold-up on my new body? I have places to be, people to do... wait, no, scratch that... places to be, people to see, one particular ass to kick."

"Did he just say "lick"?" He heard one of the younger men whispered. "Who said that?!" He looked around the lab, searching it for anyone that looked at least half-guilty. His eyes stopped at one man in particular, who interrupted his search for a victim: "We've successfully calibrated all of the parts of it except for the head. We're missing one compotent regarding the emotions shown on the face, but it should be ready for testing by the end of the week."

"End of the week?! You're taking your damn time, you know that?"

"And I apologise for that. You see, after the recent unexpected death of a few of our fellow colueagues, it takes longer for us to work on certain features." The man answered. Jack couldn't care less about why it took so long, he wanted the body now.

"Yeah, whatever. Just get it done already."

Part of the reason Jack insisted on having the body now was because he couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted to be someone, to go places. This station was beginning to bore the shit out of him and he hated how he couldn't go anywhere outside of it. He also wanted to feel things again, to feel... alive.

But deep down he also knew that the reason was also the man that he could not figure out. He knew that if he got his body, Rhys wouldn't be able to ignore him like that anymore. He wouldn't be able to just pretend like he wasn't there, because Jack would be. He'd be there, standing right next to him. He'd be there, able to touch him, to give him a piece of his mind.

* * *

  
A month passed before Jack could be put into his new body. It felt strange at first, he'd describe it as waking up after 14 hours of sleep. But he quickly got used to the feeling. He felt the coldness on the bottom of his feet from the floor, the warmth from inside his body, as if there was real heart pumping through him. The bed he sat on felt uncomfortable under his weight, and the sharp light above his head felt like it was going to pierce through his head. He blinked once, twice, looking at his hands. The skin on his hands, how his hands moved around. He felt like he was dreaming.

However, the worker bees that were supposed to test it with him had no patience, already ordering him to do this and that. Everything went according to the calculations, the movements of the body were as smooth as if it was a real one. It was all perfect. But there was something at the bottom of his stomach, a feeling he couldn't quite describe.

"You're just hungry." One of the doctors answered his question, and Jack immediately felt stupid for even asking. Of course, having a human body meant it also came with all of the advantages and disadvantages. Like the urge to get any kind of food into his stomach as soon as possible.

He carefully put on the yellow Hyperion sweatshirt, struggling a bit to put it over his head, and proceeded to his pants and boots. He didn't need his mask anymore. Why bother making a new body when you can't make its face like it's supposed to be?

By the time he made it out of R&D, it was lunch time. With his new body, he made it to the cafeteria, where everyone thought that it was okay to stare at someone who's eating.

Yeah, the food from there was as terrible as he remembered from his days of being just a programmer on this station. Now that he thought about it, why didn't he just have Meg make him something better instead?

Just as someone passed his table, a short guy he vaguely remembered from somewhere, he realised that no one actually knew that he got a new body. Neat. He could mess with some people before Rhys found out.

Or maybe not. The cafeteria was filled with a soft voice of the announcement lady who talked about some unimportant events coming up the next month, announced people who got airlocked the past month, and the arrival of one of the CEOs.

Oh hey, Rhysie was coming back.

* * *

  
Rhys felt exhausted, mostly from being chased by bandits on Pandora half the time he was there, but also because of trying to catch up with Fiona and Sasha. They had a few drinks over at The Purple Skag, talking about different things happening either down on Pandora or up on Helios. They were all glad that Rhys managed to turn Hyperion, along with Helios, as a less-threatening... threat. Especially to Pandora.

But now that Rhys was finally back on station, he couldn't wait to get into his office, pick up some of the work he's left there, get back into his apartment, take a long and relaxing bath, and flop down on his bed. On his way to the office, he was greeted by a few familiar faces. After he became the co-CEO of Hyperion, people suddenly became nice to him. Didn't even make him wonder why.

What did make him wonder, however, was if he at least made some damage to Jack. The man deserved it, and this was Rhys' payback for all that's been said by the man. He decided to turn off the JackBlock for now, curious about the man's reaction. He knew damn well he signed a deal that would send him straight out into the atmosphere without an Oz kit when he let the R&D install the upgrade, but he needed a rest everything.. especially Jack.

The doors slid open to the office, all lights turned off. The scar on Elpis reflected enough light into the office for Rhys to see his chair was turned around, facing the said moon. He didn't remember leaving it like that before he left, and he was certain no one else had the keys to his office besides him and Meg.

"Jack?" Rhys called out, his voice only a croak in the huge office, feet leading him towards the desk. He stopped as soon as the chair spun around, giving him a sight he wasn't ready for.

"You need anything, cupcake?" Jack asked, legs crossed, arms resting on the side of the chair. He smirked at the younger man, hiding his true feelings underneath all the fake skin on his body. He watched Rhys with curious eyes, like a cat watching an oblivious mouse, waiting for his next move in their little game.

"Just some paperwork I left here earlier. You can continue whatever it is you were doing." Rhys took the documents off the table, not even looking Jack in the eye. 'So, this is how you want to play it, huh?' Jack thought to himself, frowning at the man. He watched Rhys walk half the way out of the office beford he brought himself to his feet, hurrying after him as more of a plea than order escaped his mouth: "Rhys, wait."

Rhys couldn't help but groan tiredly, turning around to face the man. "What?" He asked.

"I..."

"If there's nothing you want to say to me, then don't bother even talking." Rhys let the man know, his words making him feel like he was drowing in the ocean, and that ocean was Rhys. Those heterochromatic eyes looked at him expectantly, and the only thing he could remember was the laughter after Meg told him to apologise. The Jack from then would've laughed into his face, but the Jack he was now? He didn't even know if an apology was worth it.

"Alright. I have to go, so... see you later, I guess." Rhys turned around, his broad back facing the frustrated expression on Jack's face. He rubbed at it for a second, before the words finally slipped from behind his hands: "I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, okay? Are you happy?" Jack looked at the still boy in front of him, already regretting for even saying the words, but his mouth just wouldn't shut up, "Because I sure as hell am not. I hate you and myself for even feeling like this. You ignoring me like that at first? I could get past that, but when I found out what you did to your eye, I was furious, okay? And look at what you've done.... kiddo, I admire your patience, but I'm not a patient person. Look at me, look at what you've done. You've made me airlock half the goddamn R&D department, you made me want to set the station on fire, you made me want to have a goddamn human body just I could feel validated and be acknowledged in your life... you made me into this mess.. I **HATE** you."

That wasn't what Rhys expected, not at all, and that's why he didn't even say a word to the broken man in front of him, unable to form even a thought in his mind. He didn't think it would go this far, never in his wildest dreams did he intend to make Jack feel like this. However, if he wasn't going to speak, who was?

"Um, sir, what you're feeling isn't hatred. It's something else." The assistant peeped in through the open door.

"Meg, get the fuck out."

"Yes sir." She scrambled away, shutting the door behind her as a way of 'sorry I interrupted your moment'. The tension between the two of them seemed to ease as Jack made his way to the window behind the desk, Rhys following behind, but not too close. They stood side by side, watching nothing but the moon and its many holes, scars cracks. Beside him, Jack made a long sigh. "You're an asshole, kiddo, you know that?"

"Not as big of an asshole as you."

"True." Jack admitted, his lips curved into a small smile. Jack looked at the man next to him, tracing all the lines on his face with his eyes, stopping at the eyes that reflected the moon in them. His smile fell when the younger man's eyes met his, and he swore for a second he could see his ECHOeye blink that soft shade of blue. His eyes spotted the exposed tattoo on Rhys' neck, and he always wondered if it had any meaning to Rhys. Jack wanted to see how it'd feel on the tip of his fingers, and so he slowly moved his hand to the side of Rhys' neck.

It was a gentle movement, something Rhys didn't expect from the man at all, and for a good second, he didn't know what to expect next from him. The man wrapped his fingers around his throat, but his eyes never left Jack's. Almost on a reflex, he moved his head back, exposing his neck fully to the older man. And they looked at each other like that, Jack's fingers tied softly around his neck.

But they moved, the roamed the boy's neck, from his Adam's apple, to where the tattoo was marked on his skin. His soft skin, Jack remarked. It was like exploring something new, something he's never seen before, and Jack wanted it all, he cursed himself for being so blind before, for having all of this in front of him and not claiming it as his. His fingers moved to where the port to all of Rhys' cybernetics was, and he couldn't help himself wanting to feel the surface of it. To think that it all started with that little thing, that they've come so far. Jack could hardly believe it, but it made him feel warmth inside his stomach.

And then there was the look Rhys was giving him, that look that would've melted him whole if he looked for too long. Jack cradled Rhys' cheek, and it took only one very slow lean forward for their lips to meet.

And that warmth inside Jack spread throughtout his body, and it was so intoxicating it spread through Rhys', too.

Maybe apologising wasn't always a bad thing, Jack remarked.

 


End file.
